Thursday, September 3, 2020, was a very welcome day. In the early afternoon I received my Nikon 200-500mm f4.0 lens back from the Nikon repair facility in LA… about EIGHT WEEKS to the day that they received it! I was worried that I wouldn’t receive it in time for the fall migration that has just started here. (I had our first migrant, an Orange-crowned warbler, visit on August 31 and missed getting photos of it.) I didn’t get a chance to use the lens due to other activities in progress, but I did get out the next day.
On September 4, 2020, I resolved to scout birding opportunities towards Fir Island. March Point turned up nothing so I continued to the Pleasant Ridge area. There I photographed a dragonfly for entomologist friends. (If you were short on your natural science education it’s perfectly acceptable, as is my practice, to use the term “buggologist”.)
This next dragonfly was in flight and I managed about 20 photos… not an easy task!
This was not a good birding day. I was out during the middle of the day, the sun was shining brightly and it was quite warm (for the PacNW). As the day progressed I found myself having to use my car’s air conditioning.
My first birding sighting was a pair of Red-breasted nuthatches stashing food in the bark of a large cedar tree. These photos, once I arrived back home and processed them, left me assured that my lens had been correctly repaired.
I was surprised to see three Turkey vultures (accompanied by a raptor) soaring over Wylie Road on Fir Island… I’d thought ours around Cap Sante had been gone (migrated south) several weeks ago. On Channel Drive I was surprised to encounter the following bird (and at least two companions) wandering around in someone’s gravel “yard”. My first thought was that it was some exotic bird that someone was keeping, but on further reflection I decided that it was probably a juvenile Ring-necked pheasant… although you shouldn’t consider this a positive identification. There were farm fields directly across the street so that could have been suitable habitat for the birds.
I have to include this wildlife in my blog… seemingly friendly but aloof and patrolling the neighborhood.
Back in our yard again late in the afternoon, I photographed these Chestnut-backed chickadees which gave me something of a feeling of return to normalcy. I take these birds for granted, but we occasionally get birders from the central and eastern US who consider this a ‘target bird’… check the birds’ range map and you’ll see why!
The predominant birds in our yard now are Pine siskins and American goldfinches. We’re still seeing lots of recently fledged young of both species. The juvenile birds’ best skills at this point in their development isn’t flying… it’s following parents around and begging food.
So you might think this might be the end to my day… but it wasn’t. In early evening, just before retiring to the west patio for dinner, I took a quick look out the kitchen window. There was a small bird enjoying an energetic bath in a very small saucer of water we use as a water feature. At first I dismissed the bird as just another American goldfinch, but it was too energetic and goldfinches usually don’t use this particular water feature. I used my binoculars to examine the bird more closely and saw that it was a flycatcher. This was our second observed fall migrant! I was lucky to get a photo after implementing what has become a normal routine… racing for my camera, sneaking out the front door and photographing the bird from some 30+ feet away. (A friend with better skills than my own later identified it as a Pacific Slope flycatcher, another find for you birders located to the east oof us!
So… since my birding lens is now back in my hands, photographic activities here should be returning to some degree of normalcy. I look forward to spending more time in the yard and documenting some of our fall migration activity.